Once upon a time when I was a little girl with my nose in any book of fairy tales I could find, I ran across a story of mermaids. I read about mermen, or selkies, who were greatly desired by human women. The only way to be accepted into the undersea world for a human woman was to stand at the shore and drop seven tears into the ocean before her selkie would take her into the deep with him. Growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area, I found many opportunities to try this, believing that life under the sea would be so much more beautiful than life on shore. But I could never get those seven separate tears to drop, plop plop plop, just so, one by one, as the legend required. Ever since first reading this story I've been fascinated with the whole idea of mermaids. When I die, if reincarnation exists, I want to come back as a mermaid. Then I'd search until I found Amelia Earhart and she and I would explore the ocean valleys together. We would eat lobster every day and drape ourselves with designer seaweed and loot shipwrecks for the finest treasures. She would teach me how to fly through the currents and I would teach her how to race with the dolphins. If only I could get those seven tears to drop just so.